


But I'm here right now (right now with you)

by pensivecowboyemoji



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Gen, Other, Pet Names, Smooching, Sneaking Around, i hope this makes sense chaboy went off on a tangent about the key mission?, i just want them 2 be happy together, i read over it once its 3am the wee hours of the morn are the only time i can be tender and creative, i wrote for like three hours straight after listening to 3.02 for the fourth time today, it is what it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21655567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pensivecowboyemoji/pseuds/pensivecowboyemoji
Summary: He can’t just go around calling him Nureyev in front of the others! There are standards to be upheld! A ruse to--Ugh. Juno drags a hand over his face. Only a week back together and he’s already picking up Peter’s speech patterns.title from wait a minute! by willow bc it highkey slaps. obligitory brackets bc everyone here does it
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, Rita & Juno Steel
Comments: 16
Kudos: 137





	But I'm here right now (right now with you)

**Author's Note:**

> juno starts using nicknames for petey but i waffle about other things before? this really isnt what i was planning on it being but thats the creative process babey! i think. im really good at monologuing evidently.  
> hope u enjoy remember to stay hydrated :3

Juno remembers things, in his half-asleep state. He remembers Peter’s words, from the week before: _Drop the silly moniker. I already regret choosing it.  
Everyone who's ever called me "Peter" has wanted to be my parent…  
Just.. call me what you’re used to._  
But he can’t just go around calling him _Nureyev_ in front of the others! There are standards to be upheld! A ruse to-  
Ugh. Juno drags a hand over his face. Only a week back together and he’s already picking up Peter’s speech patterns. That stupid, fancy, smooth voice. He’s so frustrating...ly perfect. Sneaking around with him during their limited free time was... _perfect_. Juno couldn’t think of a better word to describe every second they spent together. When they went stargazing while everyone else was asleep… When they went shopping in some overpriced boutique on Saturn’s rings... That one time he did that thing with his tongue where he-- O-o-okay Juno, you’re blushing. Avert the thought, now is not the time.

It’s been a busy week, their joy and revelry over successfully stealing the map, the… uh, confession, and then a stop for supplies, to gather intel, to put their plans for stealing the key into motion. They’re in the outer rim, this time, on Akna. It reminds Juno of Hyperion, if it'd had one too many shots at the bar and slipped down the stairs getting home. Slums cover a third of the planet, people too poor to escape without being sold off to slavers, crammed into fenced off areas, building rickety houses with scavenged materials, what little is left. The Board of Fresh Starts and their pharma-megacorps have their hooks deep here, their skyscrapers towering high over the poverty. Every person they’ve seen who isn’t in a garish suit or extravagant dress is wearing a debtor’s tag. It’s.. Hell. It makes Juno proud of what they’re doing, how they’ll alleviate all the suffering in places like this, watch the businesspeople crumble and drop like flies when they can’t profit off of the suffering of the poor. This time, Vespa and Buddy are going undercover, it’ll happen at a dinner in two weeks time. Waiters, something-something. Juno wasn’t paying attention, lost in the bottom of his coffee cup, thinking about how soft the look in Peter’s eyes were just that morning, waking him with gentle kisses and the allure of a quiet day together.

The rest of the crew know something changed between them that night, after the heist. They went from barely looking at one another to sneaking glances, whispering when they thought the eyes and ears of the crew were directed elsewhere. Rita tried broaching the subject with him during ladies’ night. He’d attempted to divert the topic to something less embarrasing, but when Rita thinks she smells something, she won’t drop it. She’d hop to other topics but it always returned to speculations of what “mistah Steel and mistah Ransom do when none of them are payin’ attention! Oh, oh! It’s like that episode of _Star Crossed Lovers: except they’re real stars this time and no one realised how close they were gettin’ until all the objects in a quarter of a lightyear got burnt up by the collision_! Wait, boss, you and mistah Ransom ain’t gonna blow up when you kiss, right? I mean, it’s unlikely because y’ain’t stars but you-- mistah Steel! You’re blushing! Does that mean you and mistah Ransom _did_ kiss? Oh come on Boss, you can’t just- hey! Come back! You only did half my left hand! You know I ain’t ambidextrous, mistah Steel, I can’t paint these nails without messing up! Mistah Steel! Mistah Steel!”

(Needless to say, ladies’ night ended early this week.)

Juno doesn’t know! He calls him “Peter” most of the time, that was his... original name? To some extent. But he’s too young to be a mother.  
So that’s why, when the sound of shouts and laughs filter through his door, (damn cheap ship, the walls are paper thin) Juno makes a decision.  
They’re adults, he rationalises, they’re in a consensual relationship that won’t interfere with their professional lives, what is he scared of? Old Juno would be _what the hell_ -ing over this train of thought, but he is New Juno! Unafraid, confident… the list could go on. The point is, why are they sneaking around like teenagers? Nureyev had made himself quite clear that he is open to announcing their change in relationship, so… what’s stopping him?  
So, that’s why, when he pads into the kitchen, the light shining harshly on his still-sleepy face, he ignores the greetings called by the other members of the crew, glances around the room to find Peter, seeing him standing at the stove, dual-wielding frying pans, and lets his feet carry him over. He wraps his arms around Nureyev’s waist, standing on tip-toes to kiss the back of his neck. “Morning, love.”  
The kitchen falls silent. The popping sound of greasy neu-bacon and the hum of Vespa’s knife seem deafening. Peter freezes, then turns around slowly, lifting an arm over his lady’s head, resting his arm on his shoulders, his eyes coming to meet Juno’s own. He quirks a brow, _are you sure?_ A nod.  
He relaxes, leaning down to press a kiss to Juno’s lips. They draw apart, only a hair’s breadth from one another. “Good morning, darling.” He whispers. Ever the gentleman.  
The kitchen explodes.  
Not like that stream Rita mentioned; the air filled with a scream of “I KNEW IT!” from the woman herself, the arguing between Vespa and Buddy of who was closer in their hundred-thousand cred bet. Jet Sikuliaq, man of few words, simply nods at Peter, taking another bite of his sandwich. Juno ignores the chaos he had caused, taking a peek at the stove. “The hell... neu-bacon? The only thing worse is tuna brick, I can’t believe you’d feed me this muck, darling.” He pulls away, turning and crouching to access the cereal, closely missing a mug of coffee as it is thrown across the room. Huh. Didn’t think Rita would be _that_ upset about her half-done manicure.

He continues the nicknames, calling him “petey-wetey” over the comms when he’s sipping on a coffee in the main plaza, tailing another member of the Board of Fresh Starts. He chokes and coughs, whispers “that’s a meme over _two-hundred years_ dead, Juno!” to the belly-deep laughter coming from the other end that makes him grin like a fool.  
He calls him “baby” in the sleep-addled mornings, “bastard” when he cheats at their game of cards, “love” as they’re falling asleep.  
“Nureyev” is the least common, whispered only when they’re alone (the walls _are_ paper thin, and Juno can't blow his cover). Peter doesn’t realise he’s not heard “Ransom” from the lady until weeks later. He’s confused for a little while, but... it doesn’t suit him any more, not now, not when he knows he won’t be alone again, that he has a crew to support him, he has _his Juno_. And he’s grateful.  
Maybe he’ll tell the group his… real name. At some point. Peter Nureyev has a lot of trauma to unpack, and he doesn’t exactly have an evil mind-controlling eye to help him do it. For now, Ransom's mask is safer, for him and his... family. For now.  
For now, he will live in this moment, so close to his love. The ex-detective is reading a book, brow furrowed as he puzzles through the comms and monitors 101 (why he’s reading it is beside Peter, he’s nowhere near either item). Their bodies are close, squeezed together on one of the narrow couches in the common room. Peter cranes his neck down, presses a kiss to the top of his forehead, and sighs, content.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading! i hope u have a good day  
> 


End file.
